1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of cutting a laminate and a laminate and, in particular, it relates to a method of cutting a laminate formed of substrates of different types of materials.
2. Description of the Related Art
A device comprising a laminate including a plurality of substrates of different types of materials has recently been developed. Highly technical devices such as MEMS devices are configured as a laminate of a substrate formed of silicon, and a substrate of lithium tantalate (LiTaO3), sapphire, or heat-resistant glass, etc, superposed together. In fabricating such a device, the laminate composed of a plurality of substrates of different types of materials is cut into separate devices (chips).
In a conventional method, a semiconductor wafer is cut into separate semiconductor chips by rotating a wheel containing diamond abrasive grains at high speed. The wheel containing the diamond abrasive grains can be used also for separating the laminate of a plurality of substrates formed of different types of materials into individual devices.
In fabricating a device having a fine mechanism such as a MEMS device, however, an attempt to separate the laminate into individual devices using the wheel containing diamond abrasive grains poses the problem that the contact between the wheel and the laminate at the time of cutting operation causes the laminate to vibrate and often damages the fine mechanism of the device.
In the case where a device having a fine mechanism such as a MEMS device is fabricated, therefore, some measure is required to prevent the vibration of the laminate, and a cutting method using the laser is one choice. In the cutting method using the laser, however, the material is required to absorb the laser light, and therefore the combinations of the lasers and the materials to be cut are limited.
In the case where the laminate including a plurality of substrates of different types of material is separated into individual devices, therefore, it is necessary to use a plurality of lasers having wavelengths suitable for a plurality of materials, respectively. Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2003-37218, for example, discloses a method of cutting a multilayer substrate with a dual laser irradiation, in which a first laser is focused on a first substrate, and a second laser is focused on a second substrate.
In the case where the laminate including a plurality of substrates of different types of material is separated into individual devices, therefore, as many laser oscillators as there are stacked substrates are required, thereby leading to the problem of an expensive, bulky dicing apparatus.
For cutting a laminate formed of silicon having the thickness of several hundred μm and pyrex glass having the thickness of several hundred μm, such as a MEMS device recently developed, a YAG laser (laser wavelength λ of 1.064 μm) can be used as a laser capable of culling the silicon efficiently. As a laser capable of cutting glass, on the other hand, an ultraviolet laser (laser wavelength λ of 0.35 μm) typically including the excimer laser and the THG-YAG laser or an infrared laser (laser wavelength λ of 5 μm or more) typically including the CO2 laser are available. The ultraviolet laser, however, requires a long time for cutting, and for example, several hours or longer to cut one line of 100 mm. The use of the infrared laser, on the other hand, results in the laser irradiation width of at least 1 mm in the cutting operation, and adversely affects the internal circuits in an application to a small device.